LONDON—In a legal showdown between soccer spouses that mixed celebrity, social media, and amateur sleuthing, a judge has ruled whodunnit.
Judge Karen Steyn on Friday cleared Coleen Rooney of libeling Rebekah Vardy by claiming that Vardy had leaked her private social media posts to the tabloid press.
In a devastating blow to Vardy, who launched the libel suit to defend her reputation, the judge said Rooney’s allegation was “substantially true.” Steyn said it was likely that Vardy’s agent, Caroline Watt, had passed Rooney’s private information to The Sun newspaper, and that ”Mrs. Vardy knew of and condoned this behavior.”…